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Why do we tolerate bad employees?

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Disruptive employees can have serious negative effects

It is rare that employees are actually toxic individuals

Whilst a tiny minority of employees simply attempt to undermine others and gain as much as they can without putting in the work themselves, the vast majority of workers whom we consider to be ‘toxic’ are actually just disruptive.

‘Disruptive’ could mean loud, chatty, easily distracted, frequently away from their desk, unprofessional or unproductive…and they could be perfectly nice individuals – they don’t need to be a traditional ‘bad apple’ to be considered a serious issue for team productivity.

As an employee, it’s clear when a colleague is not pulling their weight, which leads to one of two things:

  1. the frustration of committing real effort only to witness someone evading their own workload
  2. others being pulled into the same unproductive behaviour pattern, significantly slowing-down overall progress

Whilst only a small number of employees are actually toxic, the vast majority of workers are not as engaged in their jobs as they should be. According to research by Gallup, 67% are either not engaged enough or actively disengaged altogether.

What does this imply for organisations?

The same study by Gallup found that having a disruptive team member can have significant negative effects on the overall workforce. If your company is in the bottom quartile for worker engagement, the potential effects are:

  • 69% higher rates of absence
  • 39% more shrinkage
  • twice as many safety incidents than a company in the top quartile

So why are they still employed?

The majority of employees are continually frustrated that those not putting in the effort are rarely disciplined for their inactivity and lack of engagement. There are several reasons why this may be the case:

Firstly, some employers are simply not involved enough in the day-to-day running of the businesses to notice that one employee is dragging others down. 50% of employees have given up on hopes that their boss will ever have an interest in their work (and have actually left the company as a result) whilst 60% state that they lack engagement with their boss. Low engagement with the team – and a lack of interest – can easily lead to wrongdoings going unseen.

Secondly, it may be that the boss is actively protecting the disruptive employee. Usually, this individual is bold and talkative; whilst others try not to engage with the boss for fear of being chastised, the misplaced confidence in a disruptive employee’s personality is also what renders them endearing, securing their position as a fixture of the office.

What should leaders do?

For good bosses, the solution should be simple: listening to employees. Regular performance reviews, chats about productivity and anonymous employee surveys empower informed decisions and encourages openness and honesty.

Yes, said ‘disruptive’ employee may be a good person, but are they adding value to the business or are they merely contributing to inactivity?

Ultimately, only you can make that call.

A review of Caraires 2019 – the year of the Pig!

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With 2019 being such a successful, exciting year for the Caraires family, we thought we would take the time to share with you some of our personal highlights!

We kicked of the year with the birth of our infamous mascot – Corky the Caraires pig! Here at Caraires we see ourselves as a family, this is reflected in our family values, which also reflect the characteristics of a Pig – kind-hearted, positive and loyal. The colour red is our branding and is an intense colour symbolising passion and determination, traits in which we pride ourselves on. Taking our inspiration from a piggy-bank, pigs are regarded as bringing wealth and affluence to people. As your recruitment partner this is also what we aim to do through finding you the perfect job match and offering a competitive salary. Believe us when we say 2019 certainly was the year of the pig!

We then began the first of many seasonal celebrations with Valentine’s day! We sent all of our employees a valentine’s card, with one lucky winner also receiving a meal for two at Café vin cinq. In addition to this, Corky had a busy February visiting local nurseries alongside Sharon and Matt to inspire art activities and talk to the children about what they wanted to be when they grew up. We also ran a well-being week for our client’s and their teams. This included massages, health advice and nutrition packs delivered to their offices.

We then move onto March where some of the Caraires family alongside clients, had a lovely time visiting Anya Court Care home to share memories with residents and support their daily activities. In March we also ran a Family fun day in the town centre which included a treasure hunt, face painting and balloons!

For Easter we managed to raise over 900 Easter eggs with the support of our clients as part of our annual collection for HCPT. These eggs were then shipped over to Lourdes for disadvantaged children.

Then we move onto one of our most exciting projects of the year – “Caraires does Dragon Den”. This was where five of our clients listened to pitches from seven local, young entrepreneurs. The lucky winner, 17-year-old Daniel from Southam, won a £500 cash prize for his personalised Tyre-writing business “Ludicrous”.

June saw our Wimbledon-themed event “Serving-up Recognition wins”, hosted by multi-award winning speaker and author Debra Corey and featuring some delicious Afternoon tea, as well as the launch of a summer recognition scheme. Not only that but during the summer months the Caraires Family welcomed the newest addition to the family – Molly our Marketing and Communications Apprentice. We also purchased our new premises on Lawford Road which will be open in February next year!

Moving into the Autumn months, we hosted a “Brainteaser Brunch” where four client teams went head-to-head with our local market information quiz. This included rounds such as diversity, salaries, benefits and Brexit alongside some local Trivia. Then to finish off October we all got into the Halloween spirit, with Molly the witch and Corky visiting local businesses delivering “trick or treat bags”.

To finish of the year, we adopted over 280 mini Christmas trees which we watered and pruned as part of our eco-friendlier approach to our client and candidate gifts.

5 simple ways to improve your work-life balance

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There is a certain expectation on bosses to push themselves as hard as physically possible.

However, despite their increased position of power within a company, bosses should be held to the same level of welfare as any other employee – as they’re just as susceptible, if not more so, to succumbing to the same mental and physical well-being issues as their workers.

Statistics from Wellness & Lifestyle Management stated that because of the immense pressure of their workload, CEOs are at a 58.97% higher risk of having cardiac issues, 35% more likely to have high blood pressure and 23.08% more likely to have high cholesterol.

The biggest killer worldwide especially amongst executives, accounting for over 60% Medicare costs and deaths, is heart attacks. According to statistics available from Apollo’s Computerised Health Scan over ten per cent of CEOs had survived a heart attack in the year under review.

These shocking statistics highlight just how essential it is for business leaders to consider their own work-life balance a priority. But what can they do to make this key change in their lifestyles? These five points present not only key ideas for change, but also a road-map of how to implement drastic changes for improved health and to ensure that work also improves.

Establish your priorities

Of course, increasing your work-life balance means reducing workload, but this doesn’t mean that productivity has to falter. A significant amount of the work that CEOs do is low priority or can be passed onto others. The first step to making this key change is by ranking your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly tasks by order of priority, therefore separating the essential from the non-essential. This doesn’t just apply to work-life; the same logic should be applied to your home life, therefore making more time to concentrate on your wellness, fitness and mental well-being.

Account for the time in your day

So much of your time is likely to be taken up by disorganisation. By truly accounting for your time and planning your days properly, you can not only save time, but create some mental clarity which will help you achieve success going forward.

If you’re a leader, it’s likely that you often take on the stress and workloads of others to offer what you perceive to be stability. However, this isn’t true stability. Good leaders help actualise change in other, they don’t simply accept their team’s workloads. Start saying no, and make it a regular part of your vocabulary. This will prevent you from being the target for those looking to unload, and free up more time for essential tasks.

Stop seeking perfection

There’s no such thing as perfect, yet most leaders search for it, meaning that projects are drawn out, often changed dramatically and time is wasted on seeking the un-achievable. For your own sake, and the sake of your team, stop searching for perfect, and set your sights of exceptional – or in less-valuable projects, simply a pass.

Switch off

The temptation in the modern world, where our work emails are constantly available at the touch of a button, where we give out personal numbers to clients and where work-chats send messages instantly, is to stay plugged into that work mindset 24/7.

However, this is actually extremely detrimental to your well-being and productivity. By switching off, you open yourself up to the possibility of a fresh perspective when you return. You also truly unwind and decompress, giving you greater mental clarity. By making the resolution to switch off when not in work, you’ll enjoy your personal time more, and be more productive when you return.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

5 ways to boost productivity in the workplace

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The goal of any leader is, ultimately, to increase output. In the current volatile business climate simply maintaining allows other key players in the industry to gain advantage.

However, simply brandishing a whip and telling your team to ‘work harder’ is far from a sustainable way to truly up productivity. Whilst you may see a small increase in output in the short term, of course any leader worth their salt will know that this simply cannot last, or will be at the detriment of quality and diligence.

Truly increasing productivity isn’t down to one thing; like most elements of effective leadership, the concept should be approached with finesse and an overarching view of the business’ key functions – one of which should always be to ensure that workers are treated well and with respect. Simply pushing them to their limits will lead to high turnover, poor well being and ultimately a complete breakdown in function.

But then what works? How can leaders actually up productivity without compromising other areas? Read on to find out…

Review functions

Most workers aren’t performing as well as they can, but the truth is that it’s not their fault. Often, good workers simply pick up small voids left by others. This may be as simple as watering plants, or fixing the printer when it jams, yet these little incremental tasks take them away from their actual jobs and waste time. It may take just five minutes to fix a printer jam, but this one task takes them out of whatever they were doing and it may take more than half an hour to get back into the productivity ‘zone’. If you want to ensure that all workers are operating at 100%, take away the fluff that surrounds their core function.

Promote breaks

It sounds counterproductive, yet ensuing that workers are taking the time to mentally decompress between big tasks is massively beneficial to productivity. A survey conducted by Tork in the US last year found that those who took a fifteen-minute break between big tasks to decompress were not only 38% happier at work, but also 22% more productive; the study also found that the quality of their work was better. So, to do more, professionals must work less.

Set small goals

It’s all well and good aiming for a grand company objective – yet often this is vague and sets no roadmap to strive for. Your workers don’t need to know that they’re aiming for ‘excellence’ in customer service. This is a given, and provides absolutely no aide in getting there. Instead, set smaller, far more achievable goals with tangible roadmaps to success. Instead of ‘excellence’, why not ‘Upsell THIS service to 10 customers today’. This is easily achievable, and ups productivity through proper guidance.

Consider work-life balance

No professional is at their best when they can’t mentally divide themselves for their work. Burned out workers get ill, they let things slip and their wellness evaporates, along with their drive and purpose. ONS research suggests that work-related stress was the single largest cause of workplace absence last year. And if you’re their manager, it’s your fault, not theirs. Fight this by ensuring that they aren’t messaged about work outside of work hours, that they go home on time every day, and that they don’t work in evenings and weekends. By dividing these two worlds, they’ll be far more refreshed and ready to work.

Promote collaboration

Good teams work together to achieve goals, and as a worker, knowing that you have a vast network of expertise that you can call upon if you’re stuck is a massive advantage. But this doesn’t come naturally. Workers are far more likely to simply try and keep their workloads to themselves – so it takes the promotion of collaboration from managers to make it happen.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

Don’t trust ‘productivity’ tools

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In a progressively digital world the number of tools and apps on the market, which are designed to make our jobs easier, is somewhat staggering.

With start-ups regularly coming onto the scene purporting to offer the latest and greatest productivity tool, it’s easy to get caught up in the ability these technological advances can have. However, is it possible these new tools are actually hindering our productivity?

Therefore, it is time business leaders and managers take a step back and review their productivity tools and whether they should trust them. To help you recognise whether your tools are helping your productivity, Medium shared a list of three top tips to track this.

Evaluate your needs

A good staring point Medium suggests is to list areas which you wish to be more efficient with and then sort them into categories. Then identify the key thing you need the most help with in each category. For example, from this if you realise you need a more effective way of taking notes during meetings, conduct some research into tools to help with this to benefit you and your tasks.

Keep track

As the adage saying goes, ‘less is more’. This is particularly true when it comes to your choice of productivity tools. To keep on top of things it’s vital that you keep track of the many tools you are using, for example you may discover you are using too many for one task. If this is the case, start eliminating the one you do not use. Streamlining your tools on a regular basis like this will stop you from using more tools that aren’t necessary.

Use only what you need

Lastly, Medium warns business leaders and managers shouldn’t get caught up in the false need to use what’s new and hot on the market. Remember each tool that you use should be making life easier at work, while also improving your productivity. However, if they are making things more complicated it may be worth ditching them altogether.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)